Beef Brisket.

Through my brisket adventures, I learned that good barbecue brisket should have a dark, smoky exterior and a tender interior. Achieving this yummy effect takes several hours in a smoker, and a lot of patience.

The real secret to good brisket lies not in a dry rub or a sauce, but in proper temperature control. Many beginner barbecue-ers fail to understand why “low and slow” became the mantra of pit masters everywhere, but it’s the most important part to cooking the perfect brisket.

Certain cuts meat, like beef brisket, beef chuck roll, pork ribs, and pork butt, are tough due to the amount of collagen and connective tissue in the meat. At the correct temperature, collagen transforms into gelatin and the connective tissue breaks down, making these normally chewy portions moist and tender. Keeping the internal temperature of the brisket in the 180F to 205F range for several hours is ideal for gelatin formation. Many of the cuts of meat listed above are popular for this very purpose. However, if you were to try the same technique with naturally tender cuts, such as a NY Strip steak, the results will not be as pretty.

I really wanted to get a 10+ lb whole, untrimmed cut, but this time, I made do with a 4 lb trimmed brisket flat. You may have to get your butcher to order a full brisket for you. Most grocery stores and butcher shops will place special orders without any extra charge. Either way, a USDA Choice cut is preferred if you can find it.

Barbecue Brisket.

The trimmed brisket flats are not usually ideal for smoking because much of the fat is removed which can cause the meat to dry out during cooking. To counteract this, this cut is generally oven braised in order to retain moisture in the meat. If only brisket flats are available, or your smoking grate is too small to accommodate a whole brisket, you can put a layer of bacon over the meat to help keep it from drying out. Water smokers, such as the one I used, produce steam in the cooking chamber, so the bacon wrapping method isn’t required.

Now that we have our meat selected let’s prepare it and smoke it.

Directions
The way I preped the brisket may surprise some people, but I actually cut away most of the fat. My thought is that the rub and the smoke would have a hard time penetrating through a half inch of fat–especially since the cook time for a 4 lb brisket is significantly shorter than a 10 lb brisket.

With that said, cut away most of the fat leaving 1/8 to 1/4 inch where possible. Apply a generous amount of dry rub to the trimmed meat. Pat lightly with your hands to help keep the rub from falling away.

Dry Rub
Many rubs work, feel free to make additions or changes to this blend. Simply mix everything together and place in a shaker.
Ingredients
1 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoons black pepper
1 tablespoons paprika
1 1/2 teaspoon powdered garlic
1/2 teaspoon powdered mustard
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (a bit less, actually)

Wrap the rubbed brisket in foil and return it to the refrigerator.

Four to eight hours later, load your smoker with your choice of wood. Like the pulled pork recipe, nearly any hard wood will do. I used all hickory again because it was what I had on hand. Once the smoker is lit, remove the brisket from the fridge and apply a little more dry rub. Put the brisket in the smoker, fat side up.

The target temperature of your smoker should be around 225F to 250F. As stated above, the internal temperature of the meat should be in the 180F to 205F range. This is ideal for gelatin conversion, and will ensure that the meat stays tender. Cooking time will vary, but a good rule of thumb is 1 to 1- 1/2 hours per pound of meat.

Some recipes recommend turning and basting the brisket. I skipped this for three reasons. One, the smoker I was using was a water smoker. This meant that the smoking chamber was very moist, and dry meat is not a likely result. Two, opening the smoker would have released all that precious smoke. And three, once open, the smoker would have lost a lot of heat and it would have taken some time for the temperature to stabilize in the correct range again. Because this was a small brisket, I felt it best to allow for a longer exposure to smoke and not to disturb the cooking process.

Once the brisket is cooked (mine took 5 hours) remove it from the smoker and wrap it in foil. Place this in an insulated cooler to retain the heat. A 15-30 minute rest will allow the juices to re-distribute. After resting the meat, remove it to a cutting board and use a large chef’s knife to cut the beef, across the grain, into thin strips for serving.

Sliced barbecue brisket.

The exterior of my brisket had a wonderful, dark crust (otherwise known as a bark) from the smoke and the rub that contrasted nicely with the tender, smoky meat hidden beneath. The only disappointment was that I did not get the pink smoke ring characteristic of well-smoked meats (though all the flavor was there).

Store leftovers well wrapped and reheat individual servings over medium-high power in a microwave or entire briskets in a 225F oven.

Time is essential because barbecue is slow cooked to dissolve and soften the connective tissues and fats in the tougher cuts of meat traditionally used (like pork butt). Smoke from hardwood trees like hickory, mesquite, oak, apple, and maple are used to impart flavor to the meat.

Pulled Pork Barbecue

About a week ago we looked at how to smoke in a charcoal grill. This is possible for cuts of meat, like ribs, that do not require many hours of cooking time. For a cut like pork butt, it’s best to use a smoker. The smoker will allow for a longer cooking time, better heat control, and  good smoke penetration.
For this smoking session, I bought a 7 pound pork butt, borrowed a smoker, made some North Carolina style vinegar-based sauces, and had a selection of Sticky Fingers sauces available.

There are a few different strategies when it comes to smoking a pork butt. I wanted to use the simplest method possible to let my friends compare the sauces so I just put the pork in the smoker and didn’t touch it for 14 hours. What did I get as a result of using the easiest, least intensive method of cooking? Fantastic pulled pork and a group of happy, well-fed friends.

Variations on the cooking method include brining, using a dry rub, and basting. I skipped all these optional steps to keep the preparation simple and the flavors consistent. A brine would have altered the texture, a dry-rub would have altered the flavor, and opening the smoker to baste the pork would have let the smoke out. The purpose was to compare the sauces, not to experiment with different preparation and cooking styles.

The most popular sauces were the eastern North Carolina ketchup and vinegar sauce, the Sticky Fingers Carolina Sweet and the Sticky Fingers Habanero Hot. If you haven’t tried the vinegar-based sauces before, it’s worth making a batch. I have included two NC styles of barbecue sauce after the pork recipe.

Basic Barbecue Pulled Pork
Makes about 10 servings
Special equipment needed for this recipe: a smoker.
Almost any hard wood can be used. Wood from fruit trees, like apple or cherry, is popular as it lends sweetness to the meat. Hard woods, like hickory or mesquite, will result in a strong wood flavor. I used all hickory.

Ingredients
1 6-8 pound pork butt (either bone-in or boneless is fine, mine was bone in)
This is also commonly called a Boston butt, shoulder blade roast, or pork shoulder.

Directions

1. Rinse the pork and pat it dry. Remove most of the fat cap from the top –don’t worry, there will still be plenty of fat within the meat to keep it moist as it cooks. You don’t have to be very thorough removing the fat, much of it will render out of the meat.
2. Load the smoker with wood chips, wood chunks, or natural lump charcoal as directed by the manufacture’s instructions. If your smoker has a water tray, fill this with water, beer, or soda to impart extra flavor to the meat. I used about 1/3 beer and 2/3 water.
   

   Barbecue Pork Butt

3. Put the meat in the smoker with the fat cap facing up. Adjust the heat so that the smoker stays in the 225-250F range (internal meat temperature should peak at 190F). Cook the meat at least 8 hours. I let mine cook for 14 hours. I’ve seen some people smoke their pork for almost 24 hours. The key here is to cook the meat until it is tender, not just until it is cooked through. The extended cooking time ensures that the connective tissue softens and dissolves.   
   

   Get some friends to do the work pulling the pork.

4. Once you are satisfied with your cooking time, remove the meat from the smoker and let it rest on a plate tented with foil for 15-30 minutes. If it looks dark brown and crusty around the outside, you’ve done all well. That “outside brown”, as it’s called, is arguably the best part of the barbecue and should be well mixed in to allow everybody to get some.
5. To pull the pork, use forks or tongs to separate the meat. For chopped pork, pull it loosely and chop with a large knife.
6. Apply barbecue sauce and serve. Or leave the meat ‘dry’ and provide a selection of sauces to try.

Trays of Pulled Pork. They dissappeared quickly.

Eastern North Carolina Barbecue Sauce
This thin, liquid sauce made with vinegar and ketchup is representative of eastern North Carolina. This one was preferred of the two NC sauces.

Ingredients
2 cups white vinegar
2 cups apple cider vinegar
2 cups water
1/3 cup ketchup
1/8 cup hot sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons salt

Directions

1. Combine everything in a medium saucepan.
2. Bring to a simmer over low heat and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Western North Carolina Barbecue Sauce
This thin, liquid sauce made with primarily vinegar is representative of western North Carolina.

Ingredients
1 cup cider vinegar
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon brown sugar

Directions

1. Combine everything in a small bowl.
2. Mix well and allow ingredients to blend for about 4 to 8 hours.

Sticky Fingers Sauces

We mentioned that we were fans of the Carolina Sweet barbecue sauce when we made easy crock-pot pulled-pork. As we had some trouble getting their sauce, Sticky Fingers decided to help us out and not only did they send us some Carolina Sweet, but we also were able to sample their entire range of sauces and their dry rub. Click through for a review of each of their sauces and see which ones we liked.

Memphis Original
The Memphis Original barbecue sauce is an excellent example of a tomato based barbecue sauce. A little sweet, tomato-y and thick, this is the vanilla of their line up–and that’s a good thing. They give you exactly what you expect, a quality Memphis style sauce that gets it right.

Habanero Hot
Fans of hot sauce rejoice! Spicy barbecue sauce! Based on the Memphis Original, this version makes chili heads everywhere happy by turning up the heat with habanero peppers. This sauce took a few of us by surprise as the heat seems to build with each bite. This one will likely find its way into a regular rotation of sauces.

Carolina Classic
This is the Sticky Fingers take on a South Carolina mustard based sauce. I initially really enjoyed it, but the more I had it, the less I was impressed. As none of us had much experience with mustard-based barbecue sauces, the novelty of it wore off and we quickly reached for the next sauce. We came to the conclusion that this would go well with chicken nuggets as a substitute for honey mustard.

Carolina Sweet
It is easy to see why Sticky Fingers claims that this sauce is the key ingredient in their most popular rib dish. The sauce feels like a sweeter version of the Memphis Original that somehow avoids overdosing on a good thing. This one was, and still is, our favorite of the bunch. (If only they would make a Habanero Hot version of this sauce…)

Tennessee Whiskey
This was the least liked of the barbecue sauces. We had high hopes for this as bourbon and barbecue seemed like an obvious match, but after tasting this combination, we’ll keep them separate. This sauce tasted the most manufactured of the group as it seemed to have a mild chemical taste. A few points for an interesting attempt, but they are docked immediately for poor execution.

Dry Rub
This was a great representation of a restaurant style dry rub. The combination of paprika, garlic, cayenne, salt and other spices is mild enough to let the pork flavor shine through on dry-style ribs, but pronounced enough to make you miss it if you forget to add it. Just heavily dust your ribs (or any other meat) before cooking it and you are good to go. For extra flavor, dust it one last time right before eating it.

Thoughts and Favorites
I’m big on making your own sauces from natural ingredients so the use of MSG in most of their sauces is a mark against them. In their defense, many barbecue joints use MSG, and even more store bought sauces contain it, so the fact that Sticky Fingers use it is not surprising. Many people would likely notice the exclusion of MSG as it has become standard fare in most barbecue sauces. Still, I’d like to see these sauces without this addition.

Overall, Sticky Fingers makes good sauces that go with a variety of meats–not just ribs or pulled pork. The flavors vary and they represent most of the major barbecue styles (the notable exception being the North Carolina vinegar based sauces). With the help of a group of friends all too eager to taste test, we were quickly able to pick out the favorites (those bottles were quickly emptied). The most used sauce was Carolina Sweet. This was, and still is at the top of our list as a thick barbecue sauce. When we saw people fighting for the Habanero Hot, we knew there was another winner in the group. It seems a lot of our friends can take the heat. And finally, the Memphis Original rounded out the group of favorites because it didn’t try to be anything else other than a classic, no nonsense barbecue sauce.

Disclosure
These barbecue sauces were sent to us courtesy of Sticky Fingers. The sauces can be purchased directly from Sticky Fingers online, other retailers like Amazon, or grocery stores nation-wide.